Time To Upgrade!

[jpdevers]

Hey guys, my PC has been acting unwell lately, so I think its time to upgrade. I've seen a lot of new stuff coming out soon, so I was hoping for some opinions.

My current setup:
i7-4930K
Asus Sabertooth X79
EVGA GTX 780 x 2

The GPUs seem to be failing. And I run 5760 x 1080, so I should have upgraded those awhile ago. I was thinking the EVGA GTX 1080 TI. (Probably the Hybrid SC). My only concern is what does AMD have on the horizon. This needs to be replaced the soonest though.

The CPU has me the most stumped. Intel is talking about 8th Gen Coffee Lake, the Core-X series, and the Threadripper from AMD. My memory is failing and I don't want to replace it, I'd rather replace the whole platform. What is a replacement for a 4930K? I do use it outside of gaming regularly, with the Adobe Suite and some CAD software.

Budget wise it doesn't really matter, but I don't want to pay for bragging rights (I've been through that phase). $500 for a motherboard and $1000 for a CPU are about my limits now, unless their is noticeable improvement for $300 - $500 more.

Thank for reading, can't wait to see what you guys think.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Just upgrade the GPU.

How much ram is in your system?
Does your system have SSD?

 

[jpdevers]

Just upgrade the GPU.

How much ram is in your system?
Does your system have SSD?

16GB of memory. And a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo.

 

[Jeffs0418]

If you game a couple 1080's or 1080ti's will yield a massive improvement. A $1500 platform replacement...not so much.
I can't imagine a new platform under 1.5k(Motherboard, Kaby/Coffee Lake-X processor, DDR4 ram) would be much more capable than what you have now.

 

[Greasy Pommel]

Hey guys, my PC has been acting unwell lately, so I think its time to upgrade. I've seen a lot of new stuff coming out soon, so I was hoping for some opinions.

My current setup:
i7-4930K
Asus Sabertooth X79
EVGA GTX 780 x 2

The GPUs seem to be failing. And I run 5760 x 1080, so I should have upgraded those awhile ago. I was thinking the EVGA GTX 1080 TI. (Probably the Hybrid SC). My only concern is what does AMD have on the horizon. This needs to be replaced the soonest though.

The CPU has me the most stumped. Intel is talking about 8th Gen Coffee Lake, the Core-X series, and the Threadripper from AMD. My memory is failing and I don't want to replace it, I'd rather replace the whole platform. What is a replacement for a 4930K? I do use it outside of gaming regularly, with the Adobe Suite and some CAD software.

Budget wise it doesn't really matter, but I don't want to pay for bragging rights (I've been through that phase). $500 for a motherboard and $1000 for a CPU are about my limits now, unless their is noticeable improvement for $300 - $500 more.

Thank for reading, can't wait to see what you guys think.

I think you'll benefit from a GTX 1080 TI like you said. You'll probably see more of an improvement by upgrading your graphics. AMD won't have anything to compete with the GTX 1080 TI either way, so you won't be missing anything by making this upgrade.

 

[guanyu210379]

i7 4790k is still great, especially for games.
As for CAD and content creation, if you need more cores, which is the reason to go for Ryzen/Threadripper, it depends on how often and intensive you are doing those, plus how complex is your work.
I can not really give you recommendation about this, since I do not know your work.

Note: If your RAM is failing but your mobo is still ok, I would simply replace the RAM.

BTW, there is no need to go Intel, I would pick AMD this time for work. I am already preparing and calculating money to get one of those Ryzen 7 or Threadripper to replace my E3-1231V3. I need every reasonably priced core counts I can get. (I would most-likely only pick Ryzen 7 1700. Threadripper is a bit too expensive, but I am still calculating, if I would rather get Threadripper)

The basic stuffs are:
1. Bring the RAM to at least 16GB, if you do not have it yet. Content creation can use those extra RAM.
2. Get an SSD (at least 250GB), if you do not have it yet.
3. Get a new GPU RX Vega 64 or GTX1080/1080Ti. Yes, RX Vega will join the fight very soon. I would try to hold on for a couple of months and see how RX Vega performs.

 

[Greasy Pommel]

i7 4790k is still great, especially for games.
As for CAD and content creation, if you need more cores, which is the reason to go for Ryzen/Threadripper, it depends on how often and intensive you are doing those, plus how complex is your work.
I can not really give you recommendation about this, since I do not know your work.

Note: If your RAM is failing but your mobo is still ok, I would simply replace the RAM.

BTW, there is no need to go Intel, I would pick AMD this time for work. I am already preparing and calculating money to get one of those Ryzen 7 or Threadripper to replace my E3-1231V3. I need every reasonably priced core counts I can get. (I would most-likely only pick Ryzen 7 1700. Threadripper is a bit too expensive, but I am still calculating, if I would rather get Threadripper)

The basic stuffs are:
1. Bring the RAM to at least 16GB, if you do not have it yet. Content creation can use those extra RAM.
2. Get an SSD (at least 250GB), if you do not have it yet.
3. Get a new GPU RX Vega 64 or GTX1080/1080Ti. Yes, RX Vega will join the fight very soon. I would try to hold on for a couple of months and see how RX Vega performs.

I would like to add that most CAD software general modeling tasks favor high single core performance (UI will be much faster), and more than 4 cores aren't needed unless if you're doing lots of rendering and simulations.

Also, the Adobe Suite is very poorly optimized for multi-core CPU's, and an AMD CPU like a 1700(X)/1800X with a maximum overclock will only be marginally better than a 7700k with a maximum overclock.

 

[guanyu210379]

Ah! Some CADs can also benefit from stronger GPUs with more VRAM.
This is also another reason to invest for newer GPU, especially if you want to game with the rig too.
Before going for the new GPU, read carefully if your CAD can use CUDA or OpenCL, etc. before you hit the buy button on NVidia or AMD. If your softwares can handle both, just go with the one you like.
Note: I would really wait until Vega is available and see which one to pick.

 

[jpdevers]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I went ahead and ordered the 1080TI SC2 Hybrid. After reading a bunch, I've realized how much the VRAM is affecting my surround performance. I pretty much stopped play BF1 because I couldn't get a consistent 60 FPS in 5760 x 1080, and SLI just kinda sucks with it. So hopefully getting rid of SLI will be nice. Case is gonna be kinda empty though. My first non-SLI setup since my 7800 GTX. Hopefully the Vega will be in the same performance range, but if it is better I guess I'll kick myself for not waiting (and then probably buy one).

Back to the CPU debate. I play a lot of Prepar3d. My understanding is that FSX and now P3D both love fast single core performance. I'm overclocking to 4.5GHz right now and the performance seems okay. What are your thoughts on a CPU upgrade that would be a good balance for this. I also stream P3D and have no intention of getting a dedicated stream box. CPU is also under water so anything over clockable is good.